Whose Data, Whose Pasts? Community Perspectives on a Digital Provenance Database for Collections from Colonial Contexts

This paper examines how stakeholders from communities where collections from colonial contexts originate view provenance databases. Such databases have expanded in response to calls for transparency and accountability, aggregating holdings and widening access beyond European institutions. Yet systemic inquiry into how community members view these tools remains limited.

This paper draws on a survey conducted around the Provenance Research in Collections from Colonial Contexts in Lower Saxony (PAESE) Database. Participants include community activists, museum professionals, artists and researchers. Responses highlight tensions between visibility and harm prevention, calls for community-led data governance and reflect on databases’ potential to support collaboration and restitution. The paper argues that community perspectives must shape the design and governance of digital provenance infrastructures if they are to meet contemporary ethical, political and technological challenges.